I am looking at getting the NBN with Optus within the next few months, but reading all these posts on the dramas that everyone is having with Optus is not filling me with a lot of joy.

I have no idea as to what everyone is saying with regards to different connections ,Dicky modems and Routers. What type of setups ie FTTP,FTTH and so on.

The router situation is also confusing, as I think I will be supplied the Sagemcon fast 3864 modem/router, which is causing problems to so many of you.

Iam also thinking of getting rid of our landline and using our mobiles only. I am also wondering if the wifi of this unit is satisfactory and what is it's range. Have been looking at other providers and their plans and speeds. I also read that Optus offer very low 12mbps , which is not what I am after.

I have used all of my old modem/routers as WIFI access points as I have a large property.

Basically I have ethernet cabling right through the property already so I have just plugged in one of the routers wherever I have a poor WIFI signal.

All routers have the same SSID and password.

When I attempt to connect a device to WIFI I can usually see more than one instance of my home WIFI network - one for each router which is in range of my device. I just pick the one which has the strongest signal.

Now the problem with this is that as I move around the property the signal level drops but my device does NOT disconnect from the weak WIFI signal and connect to the stronger signal unless the weaker signal is lost totally. So if I move from one end of the property to the other I have to disconnect the WIFI on my device and then reconnect to the router with the strongest signal at that location. It works OK as I normally only use the WIFI when I'm sitting down somewhere anyway.

There are also MESH Wifi devices. These have multiple WIFI repeaters which all act as one integrated WIFI network - much like how mobile phone towers work. When you move from one location to another your device connection is automatically passed to the router with the strongest signal without you having to do anything. The MESH WIFI devices can connected to each other via WIFI or via ethernet cable. If connecting them via WIFI then they have to be within WIFI range of the main router and then they extend the WIFI range even further still so that you can still get a WIFI signal from the secondary device even if you can't get one from the main router.

Netgear and Ubiquiti both have MESH router systems available for a few hundred dollars and there are other players out there as well. Google MESH WIFI to see more information on these systems and to find reviews so that you can see which one might be better for your needs.

Whether you get Fibre to the Home or Fibre to the Node has nothing to do with your ISP - be it Optus or any other provider. The NBN handles all of that and the ISP only handles your connection once inside your house. So there is no reason to check different ISPs to determine which one can offer the best connection. They will ALL be the same.

If the ISP doesn't buy enough bandwidth for the node then you may have speed issues due to the ISP running out of bandwidth and this may be different between different ISPs.

If you have Fibre to the home then your maximum connection speed is fixed at a true 100Mbs although your data throughput is throttled to the speed that you are paying for (ie 12, 25, 50 or 100Mbps). I believe that the Fibre to the home hardware and fibre cable can support speeds of 1Gbps (or higher) but that is not on offer as a normal option.

If you have Fibre to the Node then your maximum speed is also determined by how far you are from the node so if, like me, you are 700m from the node your maximum speed - no matter HOW much you pay - is around 34Mbps so I chose to just pay for 25Mbps and that is what I get.

If you are not going to use the landline option provided by Optus then you can use any modem/router that you want as the VDSL settings are available - it's only the VOIP SIP settings that Optus are keeping secret. So you don't need to discount Optus because of their crappy modem because you can bring your own as well. I chose Optus because I wanted their bundled FetchTV service with unlimited downloads. I could have got FetchTV from Internode as well but they didn't (at the time) also have an unlimited download plan.

Most of the complaints with Optus seem to be complaints about the modem which is REQUIRED if you want to use the Optus bundled VOIP service. You can, of course, use a different VOIP service with Optus as your ISP - you just won't get it for free. I had an ENGIN VOIP service with my Internode connection for many years as a way of getting two active phone lines into my premises.

If you turn off the WIFI on your SAGEMCOM modem, connect the WAN port from your Nighthawk to the SAGEMCOM and set the IP address of the Nighthawk as the DMZ address in the SAGEMCOM then you should have all of the advantages of the Nighthawk (eg much better WIFI and more configuration options) as well as being still able to use the VOIP phone connected to the SAGEMCOM modem. This is pretty much my setup except I have a Fritzbox modem instead of a Nighthawk.

The Fritzbox is also a VDSL modem so I can also use it by itself without the SAGEMCOM but then I can't make the VOIP work in the Fritzbox because Optus thinks that telling me my SIP settings is a security concern.

After some research I found that I could not even set QoS because it's arbitrarily locked down by Optus. The excuses provided for this are quite frankly a load of bull.

As far as I am concerned, once the initial setup is done - Optus' responsibility to deliver the service ends at my wall plug. My internal network - and how I choose to configure it - is my own business. Optus should have ZERO unsolicited access to this once the setup is done.

Additionally, based on some old Whirlpool threads I've seen on bypassing those limitations, I have grave security concerns. One of which apparently contained an admin password "secured" by base64 encoding.

If I want a firmware update, I'll seek it out and download it myself. What I don't want is dumbed down access to a router that god knows who has access to, and can remotely connect to.

If you put them into bridge mode then they are no longer working as a router and hence I suspect that the VOIP will stop working because it can no longer be routed. So bridge mode doesn't achieve anything.

If you want to connect via a modem in bridge mode then buy a cheap modem, put it into bridge mode and then add whatever separate router you want. Or just buy a better quality and more versatile modem/router device (eg Fritzbox).

If you want to use a different modem than the Sagemcom then you can certainly DO that - you just won't get the VOIP to work.

If you are not using Optus VOIP then you can use any modem that your hear desires and you can then get a different VOPI service from Engin or any other VOIP provider - you just have to pay for it.

You CAN pug an external router's WAN port into one of the SAGEMCOM's LAN ports and set the Sagemcom to ujse the external router via a DMZ setting and that should solve all of your problems except that you have to have two devices.